Print Resources, a marketing-products company in Indianapolis with a growing clientele of smaller, niche businesses, was in a small bind. Co-owners Kurt Ellinger and Tim Browning had outgrown their Print MIS system – it just couldn’t keep up with their order-management needs and it wasn’t generating the data they needed to strategically manage their expanding business.
The company needed sophisticated forecasting and cost analysis tools, and a more efficient way to manage the growing volume of orders coming in from new customers. Staff had to manually enter all orders individually, creating inefficiencies and increasing the potential for errors.
The solution for Print Resources was Avanti Slingshot and Avanti XML Loader. Slingshot integrates seamlessly with its existing systems, including web-to-print software, and with other third-party solutions. It can also grow with the company and be adaptable to its changing needs.
Avanti’s XML Loader gives Print Resources a detailed packing slip for each order, along with a list of items that go into the box, allowing staff to manage hundreds of orders for individual customers. It used to take five staff to do this work, but XML Loader cut it to one.
“We have several clients that pick and pack things with hundreds of pieces a day. With Avanti, the download of the order, the upload of the packing list, tracking numbers and invoices are all automated to a certain degree. We have saved, not only financially but also with how we allocate our staff,” said Kurt Ellinger, co-founder of Print Resources.
The partners now have powerful tools and information to manage and grow the company. Detailed data on the cost of materials is helping them run the business more efficiently and make more strategic decisions that facilitate growth.
“With our previous Print MIS, there weren’t as many ways to process estimates and tasks. But now, with Avanti Slingshot, I can be much more thorough on how we estimate things so our pricing can be more accurate. We are not shooting from the hip as much,” added Ellinger.
Overall, since installing Slingshot, business has grown 50%. The company is also expanding its lucrative artisan-based promotional-products division since Slingshot helps separate the two businesses with split and flexible invoicing – something the old Print MIS could not do.
“We could not have achieved our growth without changing our Print MIS system,” concludes Ellinger.
Please read the full case study on Print Resources by clicking here.
